x i 1 FN 4 : cusable anywhere—it is a defiance of i 3 3 orderly government; but- the killinz : of innocent people under any provo- cation 1s infinitely more horrible ; and : vet innocent people are likely to dic when a mob’s terrible lust is one? aroused. The lesson in this: No An Able Document Setting Forth Some ri... it to i Needed Legislation IS STRONG ON MORALITY ir «quently suffer y and, it 1s my obesr- vation, more usually suffer than the gnilty. The white people of the South iilict the whole colored race on the ground that even the better elements lend no assistance whatever in fer- Mr. Roosevelt writes a Particularly Strong Message In Which He Deals With Live Issues, Such as Injunc- tions, Lynchings and Their Causes, and Other Matters of Vital Inter- est to the Whole Country. providing something to the efiect that: No judgment shall be set aside ov new trial granted in any case, civil or criminal, on the ground of misdi- rection of the jury or the improper admission or rejection of evidence, or for error as to any matter of plead- ing or procedure unless, in the opin- ion of the court to which the appli- 01. The respectable colored people must learn not to harbor their erimi- nals, but to assist the officers in bring- ing them to justice. This is the larger crime, and it provokes such atrocious offenses as the one at At- lanta. The two races can never get reting out criminals of their own eol- The following. is the substance of the annual President Roosevelt to Congress, as read in hot’ message of Louses: Introductory. To the Senate and House of Repres- entatives: As a nation we still continue to en- joy a literally unprecedented prosper- ity; and. it is probable that only reck- less. speculation and disregard of ligi- timate business methods! on the part of the business world can materially mar this prosperity. No Congress in our time has done more good work of importance than the present Congress. There were several matters left unfinished at your last session, however, which I most earnestly hope you will com- cation is made, after an examina- tion of the entire cause, it shall affir- matively appear that the error com- plained of has resulted in a miscar- riage of justice. Injunctions. In my last message I suggested the enactment of a law in connection with the issuance of injunctions, attention having been sharply drawn to the matter by the demand that the right of applying injunctions in labor cases should be- wholly abolished. It is at least doubtful whether a law: abolish- ing: altogether the use of injunctions in such cases would: stand’ the test of the courts: in which case of course the legislation would be ineffective. Moreover, I believe it would be wrong altogether to prohibit the use of in- junetions. It is eriminal to permit sympathy for eriminals to weaken lete before your adjournment. LA Campaign Contributions: | 1 again gecommend a law prohib- | iting all corporations from contribu- ting to the campaign expenses of any party. Such a bill has already past | one House of Congress. Let indivi | duals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all 1% corporations from making tions for any political purpose, di: |; rectly or indirectly. I Government's Right to Appeal in | Criminal Cases. Another bill which has past one House of the Congress which it is urgently necessary should be enacted into law is that conferring upon the Government the right of appeal in crigiinal case’ on questions of law. This right exists in many of the States; it exists in the District of Columbia by act of the Congress. It is of course not proposed that in any case a verdict for the defendant on the - merits should be set aside. Re- cently in one district where the Gov- ernment had indicted certain persons for conspiracy. in. connection with re- bates, the court sustained the defen- dant’s demurrer; while in another au indictment for conspiracy to obtain rebates has been sustained by the court, convictions obtained under it, and two defendants sentenced to im- | prisonment. The two cases referred | tc may not be in real conflict with | each other, but it is unfortunate tha: | there should even he an appearen: couféct. At present there is no way by which the Government can cause such a conflict, when it occurs, to be solved by an appeal to a higher court, and the wheels of justice are blocked without any real decision of the ques- | tion. I ean.not too stronely urg: the passage of the bill in question. A failure to pass it will result in | seriously hampering the Government | in its effort to obtain justice, espec- ially against wealthy individuals or | corporations who do wrong; and may also prevent the Goyernm sc from ob- taining justice for wageworkers who are not themselves able effectively to contest a case where the judgment of an inferior court has been them. I have specifically in view a recent decision by a district jude leaving railway employees without remedy for vioJation of certain so- called labor statute. It seems an ab- surdity to permit a district juedg awainst what may be the judement | ol' the: immense majority of his col- leagues on the bench, to declare pclicy of resorting to the eriminal law solemnly enacted by the Congres to be ‘‘uncounstitutional,”” and then to deny the Government the right to have the Supreme Court decide the question. It is well to recollect that the anh efficiency of the law often depends not upon the passage of acts as to | which there is great public excite: ment, but upon the passage of aets of this nature as te which there is not much public excitement, because there is little public understanding of thei: importance, while the interested par- ties are keenly alive to the desira- bility of defeating them. The impor- tance of enacting into law the par- ticular bill in question is further in- creased by the fact that the Govern- | ment has now definitely law in those trust and interstate commerce cases where such a course offers a reasonable chance of success. Setting Aside of Judgments and Granting of New Trials. In connection with this would like to call very unsatisfactory inal law, the habit of setting aside the judg- ments of inferior eourts on technical- ities absolutely unconnected with the merits of the case, and where there is no attempt to show-that there ha- been any failure of substantial jus- tice. It would be well to enaet a law matter, I attention to the state of our cirm- { by mob violence | | SOme contribu- | ° amend [1s necessary to against | definitely | begun a | 2 resulting in large part from | our hands in upholding the law; and if men seek to destroy life or property there should be no impairment of the power of the courts to deal with them in the most sum- mary and effective way possible. But lso far as possible the abuse of the power should be provided against by such law as I advocated last year, In this matter of injunctions there is lodged in the hands of the judiciary a necessary power which is neverthe- less subject to the possibility of grave abuse. It is a power that should be ex ercised with extreme care and should be subject to the jealous scrutiny of all men, and eondemnation should be meted out as mueh to the judge who fails to use it boldly when necessary as to the judge who uses it wantonly or oppressively. Of course a judge strong enough to be fit for his office will enjoin any resort to violence or intimidation, ‘especially by conspir- acy, no matter what his opinion may be of the rights of the original quar- rel. There must be no hesitation in dealing with disorder. But theve must likewise: be- no. such abuse of thi injunctive power as is implied in for- bidding laboring men to strive fou their own betterment in peaeeful and lawful ways: nor must the injunction be used merely to aid some big ecor- poration in carrying out schemes for its own aggrandizzment. Lynching. In eonnection with the delays of the law, I call your attention and the attention of the nation to the pre- valence of erime among us, and above {all to the epidemic of lynehing and mob violence that springs up, now in one part of our country, mow in an- other. Each section, North, South, East, or West, has its own faults; no section ean with wisdom spend ifs {time jeering at the faults of another section; it “should be busy trying to its own shortcomings. To deal with the erime of corruption it have an awakened public conscience, and to suppliment this by whatever legislation will add speed and certainty in the executiou of the law. When we deal with lvnching even more is necessary. A areat many white men are lynched. but the crime is pecularlv frequent in | respect to black men. The greatest | existing cause of lynching is the per- etration, especially by black men, |of the hideous crime of | most abominable in all the lof crimes, ever worse than murder. Mobs frequently avenge «the conimis- | sion of this erime by themselves tor- turing to death the man committing it; thus avenging iu bestile fashion a | bestile deed, and reducing themselves | to a level with the criminal. Lawlessness grows by what it feeds upon; and when mobs begin to lynch for rape they speedily extend the sphere of their operations and lyncl | for many other kinds of crimes, so that two-thirds of the lynchings are {not for rape at all; while a consider- able proportion of the individuals lynched are innocent of all erime. | Governor Candler, of Georgia, stated | on one occasion some years ago: ‘‘I can say of a varity that I have, with- | in the last month, saved the lives of | half a dozen innocent negroes wlio were pursued by the mob, and brought them to trial in a court of a law in which they were aequitted.”’ | As Bishop Galloway, of Mississippi, has finely |a mob obtains, that which { | ered. | charged with rape will in a { while lynch a white man suspeédted of | crime. Every Christian | America needs to lift up his voice in | loud and eternal protest against the | mob spirit that is threatening the in- | tegrity of this Republic.’ | Jelks, of en as follows: | person for whatever erime is on until there is an understanding on the part of both to make common cause with the law-abiding against criminals of any eolor.’ Moreover where any erime commit- ted by a member of one race against a member of another race is avenged in such fashion that it seems as if not the individual eriminal, but the whole race, is attacked, the result is to exasperate to the highest degree race feeling. There is. but one rule in dealing with black men as with white men; it is the same rule that must be applied in dealing. with riel: men and’ poor men; that is, to treat each man, whatever his color, his creed, or his social position, with even-handed justice on his real worth as a man. White people owe it quite as much to themselves as to the eol- ored race to treat well the colored man who shows by his life that he de- serves such treatment; for it is sure- ly the highest wisdom to encourage in the colored race all those indivi- duals who are honest, industrious, law-abiding, and who therefore mak: good and safe neighbors and citizens. Reward or punish the individual oa his merits as an individual. Evil will surely come in the end to both races if we substitute for this just rule the habit of treating all the mem- bers of the race, good and bad, alike. There is no question of ‘‘soeial equal- ity’’ or ‘‘negro domination’’ involv- ed; only the question of relentlessly punishing bad men, and of securing to the good man the right of his life, his liberty, and the pursuit of his happiness as his own qualities of heart, head, and hand enable him to achieve it. Every colored man should realiz2 that the worst enemy of his raee is the negro eriminal, and above all the negro criminal who commits the dreadful erime of rape; and it should be felt as in the highest degree an offense against the whole country, and against. the colored race in par- ticular, for a eolored man to fail fo help the officers of the law in hunt- ing down with all possible earnest- ness and zeal every such infamous of- fender. Moreover, in my judgement, the erime of rape should always be punished with death, as is the ease with murder; asault with intemt to commit rape should be made a eapi- tal crime, at least in the diseretion cf the court; and provision should be made by which the punishment may foliow immediately upon the heels of the offense; while the trial should be so condueted that the victim need not be wantonly shamed while giving tes- timony, and that the least possible publicity shall be given to the details. The members of the white raee on the other hand should understand that every lynching represents by just so much a loosening of the bonds of civilization; that the spirit of lynching inevitably throws into prominence in the community all the foul and evil creatures who dwell therein. No man ean take part in the torture of a human being without having his own moral nature perman- ently lowered. Every lynching means just so much moral deterioration in said: ‘‘When the rule of distin- | euishes a high eivilization is rurrend- The mob which lynches a negro | reformers. In patriot in Governor Alabama, has recently spok- ‘“The lynching of any inex- all the children who have any knowl- (2908 of it, and therefore just so much additional trouble for the next gen- rape—the (eration of Americans. category Let justice be both sure and swift; | but’ let it be justice under the law, oe not the wild and erooked say- jagery of a mob. Capital and Labor. In dealing with both labor and ecap- ital, with the questions affecting both | corporations and trades unions, there [15 one matter more important to re- | member than aught else, and that 1s | the infinite harm done by preachers of mere discontent. These are men { who seek to excite a violent class hat- red against all men of wealth. They |seek to turn wise and proper move- | men ts for the better control of cor- | goraltens and for doing away with the abuses eannected with wealth, in- to a campaign of hysterical excite ment and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to madness the brutal | passions of mankind. The sinister | demagogs and foolish visionaries who |are always eager to undertake such a | camapign of destruction sometimes seek to associate themselves with | those working for o genuine reform in governmental and soeial methods. land sometimes masquerade as the reality they are the 0 little | worst enemies of the cause they pro- {fess to advocate, just as the purvey- lors of sensantional slander in news- | paper or magazine are the worst [enemies of all men who are engaged in an honest effort to better what is bad in our social and governmental conditions. To preach hatred of the rich man as such, to carry on a cam- paign of slander and invective against awvho love their him, to seek to mislead and inflame to madness honest men whose lives are hard and who have not the kind of mental training which will permit them to appreciatz the danger in the doctrines preached—all this is to eom- in it, and may result in the tempor- ary political success of othres, in the long tun every such fhovement will either fail or 2lse will provoke a vio- lent reaction, which will itself resul! not merely in undoing the mischief wrought by the demageg and the agi- tator, but also in undoing the good that the honest reformer, the true upholder of popular rights, has pain- fully and laboriously achieved. Cor- munities where the demogog and the agitator bear full sway, because in such communities all mora! bands become loosened, and hys- teria and sensationalism replace the spirit of sound dealing as between man and man. In sheer revolt against the squalid anar- chy thus produced men are sure in the end to run toward any leader who can restore order, and then their re- lief at being free from the intoler- able burdens of class hatred, violence, and demogogy is such that they can not for some time be aroused to in- dignation against masdeeds by men of wealth; so that they permit a new growth of the very abuses which were in part responsible for the original outbreak. The one hope for suecess for our people lies in a resolute and fearless, but sane and cool-headed, advance along the path marked out last year by this Congress. There must be a stern refusal to be misled into following either that base crea- ture who appears and panders to the lowest instincts and passions in order tc. arouse one set of Americans against’ their fellows, or that other creature, equally base but ne baser, who in a spirit of greed, or to aecu- mulate or add to an already huge fortune, seeks to exploit his fellow- Americans with eallous disregard to their welfare of soul and body. The man who debauehes others in order to obtain a high office stands on an evil equality of eormmption witli the man who debauches other for financial profit; and when’hatred is sown the evil, work- the men to traditions are dear, country and try to act decently by their neighbors, ewe it to. themselves to remember that the most damaging blew that can “be given popular government is to eleet an unworthy and sinster agitator” on a platform of violence and hypoerisy. Whenever such an issue is raised in this country nothing ean be gained by flinching from it, for in such eas: democracy is iteself on trial. The triumph of the mob is just as evil a ‘thing as the triumph of the pluto- eraey, and to have escaped one danger avails nothing whatever if we sue- cumb to the other. Railroad Employees” Hours and Eight Hour Law. I call your attention to the need of passing a bill Hmiting the number of hours of employment of railroad eni- ployees. The measure is a very mod- erate one and 1 ean conceive of no serious objection to it. Indeed, so far as it is in our power, it should be our aim steadily to reduce the num- ber of heurs of labor, with as a goa! the general introduction of an eight- hour day. There are industries in which 1t is not possible that the hours of labor should be redueed; just as there are communities not far enough advanced for such a movement to be for their good, or, if in the Tropics, so situated that there is no analogy between their needs and ours in this matter. for instance, the every way so different mechanics, farmers, merebants, ers with head or hand, whom America from would be absurd; so far as the 1 T ennsy ruption is never so rife_as in com- judgment and fair crop which springs up ean only be | The plain people who think—the | On the Isthmus of Panama, conditions are in what they are here that an eight-hour day Just as it 1s absurd. Isthmus is concerned, where white labor can not be employ- ox Sti is Feu Hones a vania and the causes oa o which the controversy arose, in their report, findings, and award expresi the belief ‘‘that the State and Fed- eral governments should provide the machinery for what may be called th: mit a erime against the body politic cumpulsory investigation of contro- and to be false to every worthy prin- | versies btween employers and ciple and tradition of American nat-|employees when they arise.”’ ional life. Moreover, ‘while such Withdrawal of Coal Lands. pifeaching and such agitation may : ) : give a livelihood and a certain noto-| It is not wise that the Nation riety to some of those who take part [should alienate its remaining coal lands. TI have temporarily withdrawn from settlement all the lands whieh the Geological Survey has indicated as containing, or in all probability containing, coal. The question, how ever, ean be properly settled only by l-gislation, which in my judgment should provide for the withdrawal of these lands from sale or from entry, save in eertain especial eireumstances. The ownership would then remain in the United States; which should not, however, attempt to work them, but permit them to be worked by privat: individuals under a royalty system, the Government. keeping such control as to permit it to see that no exces- sive price was charged consumers. ” Corporations, The present Congress has taken long strides in the direction of secur- ing proper supervisicn and control by the National Government over corporations. engaged in interstate husiness—and” the enormous majority of corporations of any size are-engag- ¢d in interstate business The pas- soge of the railway rate bill, and only to a less degree the passage of the pure food bill, and the provision for increasing and rendering more effee- tive national control over the beef- packing industry, mark an important advance in’the proper direetion. In the short session it will perhaps b: difficult to do mueh further along this line; and it may be best to wait unt: the laws have been in operation for a number of months before endeavoring to inerease their scope, hecause only operation will show with exaetness their merits and their shorteomings and thus give opportunity to define what further remidial legislation is ceded. Yet in my judgment it will in the end be advisable in eomnection with the packing house inspeetion law to provide for putting a date on the label and for eharging the eost of in- spection to the packers. All these laws have already. justified their en- aclment. Agriculture. The only other perscns whose wel-- fare is as vital to the welfave of the whole country as is the welfare of the vageworkers are the tillers of the scil, the famaers. If is a mere truism ‘to say that no growth: of eities, no growth of wealth, no industrial de- velapment ean atowe- for any: falling oft mn the eharaeter and standing ef the farming population. During the last few decades this faet has been recognized with ever-inereasing elear- ness. There is no longer any. failure to realize that farming, at least In certain branehes, must beeome a tech- nieal and seientifie profession. This means. that there: must -be. open. to {farmers the chance for technical and scientific training, not theoretical merely but of the most severely prac- trical type. The farmer represents a peculiarly high type of American eitizenship, amd he must have the same chance to rise and develop ‘as other Ameriean citizens have. More- over, it is exactly as true of the far- mer, as it is of the business man and the wageworker, that the ultimate success of the Nation of whieh he fcrms a part must--be founded not alone on material prosperity but upon high: moral, mental, and physical de-| velopment. This edueation of the fermer—self-education by preferenee, but alse education from the outside, as with all other men—is pecularly neeessavy here in the United States, where the frontier eonditions even in the newest States have now vanished. where there must be a substitution eof a more intensive system of eultiva- uon tor the old wasteful farm man- acement, and where there must be a better business. organization among the farmers. themselves. Marriage and Divorce. I am well aware of how diffieult it development of the country; tion t from the a of the nation, from the standpoint of the hu race, the one sin for which the penal- ty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement; a sin: whieh is the more dreadful exactly in proportion as the men and women thereof are in other respeets, in character, and bodily and mental powers, those whom for the sake of the state it would be well to see the fathers and mothers of many healthy children, well brought up in home made happy by their presence. No man, no woman, can shirk the pri- mary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self- Jespeet. International Morality. On the question of International morality Mr. Roosevelt comes out strongly, advocating clean dealing be tween the nations of earth and strongly advocates international ar tiation’as a means of settling all = ficulties that may arise. American Shipping. Let me once again call the atten- tioa of the Congress to two subjeets coneerning which I have frequently before communicated with them. One is the question of developing Ameri - can shipping. I trust that a law em bodyingy in substance: the views, Or a major part of the views,exprest in the report. on this subject laid before the House at its last session will be past. I am well aware that in former years objectionable measures have been pro- posed in reference to the encourage- ment of American shipping; but it seems to me that the proposed meas- ure is as nearly unobjectionable as any can be. It will of course bene- fit primarily our seaboard States, Maine, Louisiana, and Washington; but what benefits. part of our people in the, end. benefits- all ;. just as Gov- ernment aid to irrigation and forestry in the West is really of benefit, not only to the Rocky Mountain States, but to all our eountry. If is prove impractieable to enaet a law for the encouragement of shipping generally, then at least provision should be made for better eommunication with South America, notably for fast mail lines to the chief South Ameriean ports. It is disereditable to ns that our busi- ness people, for lack of direct eom- munication in the shape of lines of stearners with South America, should in that great sister continent be at a disadvantage” compared {o‘the busi- ness people of Europe. Currency Reform. I especially eall your attention to the second subjeet, the condition of our curreney laws. The national bank act haf ably served. a great pur- pose in aiding the enormous business and within ten years there has been an inerease in eirculatiom per capita from $21.41 to $33.08. For several years evidenee has been accumulating that additional legislation is needed. The recurence of eaeh erop season emphasizes the defeets of the present laws. There must seon be a revision of them, because to leave them as they are means to ineur liability of busi- ness disaster. Sinee your body ad- journed there has been a fluetnation in the interest on eall money from 2 per eent to 30 per eent; and the flue- tuation was even greater during the preceding six months. The Secretary of the Treasury had to step in and by wise action put a stop to the mest violent period of eseillation. Even | worse than such fluctuation is the ad- | vamee in commereial rates and the un- eertainty felt in the sufficiency of credit. even at high rates. All com- mereial interests suffer during each | erop period. Exeessive rates for call money in New York attract money from the interior banks into the spe- eulative fields; this depletes the fund that would otherwise be available for commercial uses, and commercial bor- rowers ave forced to pay abnormal rates; so that each fall a tax, in the shape _of increased interest charges, is placed on the whole commerce of the: country. Our Island Possessions. It is urged that these shall reeeivs the careful consideration of Congress ard that tariffs, ete., shall be upon a just basis. ed. to hother us to whether the neces. is to pass a constitutional ‘amendment. sary work is done by alien black men Nevertheless in my judgment the The message goes at length into the or by alien vellow Ton. 3ut the | Whole question of marriage and di- | matter of the efficiency of our army wageworkers of the United States are (voree should be relegated to the au |and navy. The President is mueh of so high a grade tMat alike from | thority of the National Congress. At |gratified at the progress we are mak- the merely industrial standpoint and present the wide difference in the ing in both branches of our common from the civie standpoint it shoull laws of the different States on this | defense. In the matter of rifle proc- be our object to do’what we ean in subject result in seandals and abuses; | tice the President says: and surely there is nothing so vitally | The Congress has most wisely pro- essential to the welfare of the nation, | vided for a National Board for the nothing around whieh the nation |promotion of rifle prietise. Excellent should so bend itself to throw every |results have already come ‘from this Army and Navy. the direction of securing the general observance of an eight-hour day. Employers’ Liability. Among the excellent laws which the r on 0 safeguard, as the home life of the |law, but it does not go far enough. -ongress past at the last session was | average citizen. The change would |Our Regular Army is so small that in an employers’ liability law. It was marked step in advance to. get the recognition of employers’ liability on be good from every standpoint. In [any particular it would be good because it would confer on the Congress the great war we should have to trust mainly to volunteers; and in such event these volunteers should ‘the statute books; but the law did not | power at once to deal radically and |aiready know how to shoot: for if a go far enough. In spite of all precau- jefficiently with polygamy; and this | soldier has the fichting dee and tions exercised by employers there are should he done whether or not mar- ability to take ene of Yast in the unavoidable accidents and even | riage and divoree are dealt with. I! |open, his efficiency on the line of deaths envolved in nearly every line jig ; ; neither safe nor proper to leave {baitle is almost direetly proportion- the question of polygamy to dealt Cate to excellence in markmanship. with by the several States. Power to [in e should establish shooting oallar- deal with it should be conferred ou [ies in the large public and military the National Government. Le hools; should maintain rational tar- When home ties are loosened; when | get 1 ranges in different parts of the men and women cease to regard a |country, and should in every way on- of business connected © with the me- chanie arts. This is inevitable saeri- fice of life may be reduced to a mini- mum, but it can not be completely eliminated. Investigation of Disputes Capital and Labor. Between worthy family life, with all its du- courage the formation of rifle elubs The commission appointed by the |ties fully performed, and all its re-|throughout all parts of the land. The President October 16, 1902, at the re- | sponsibilities lived up to, as the life {little Republic of Switzerland offers quest of both the anthricite eoal ap- erators and miners, to inquire into, ccnsider, and pass upon the pasion i.: controversy in connection with the strike in the anthrieite best worth living; then evil days for the commonwealth are at hand. There are regions in our land, and’ classes of our population, where the birth regions of |rate has sunk below the death rate. u- an excellent example in all matters connected with building up an offi- vient eitizen soldiery. 2 THE ODORE ROL SEN The White Wise, Dee, VELT. Lh, 1996. Ui to
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers